The Dairy Industry.

Feilding Star, 10 November 1897, Page 4

The Dairy Industry.

The last report of the British Consul ! at Stockholm contains matter that should interest New Zealand dairy workers, although it is primarily intended for the edification of farmers in Great Britain. It appears that last year Sweden exported close upon twentyfour thousand tons of bntter, nearly all of which went to the United Kingdom. The Consul states that the competition of Australia and New Zealand, which was so much feared by Swedish exporters a few years ago, seems to have made no appreciable difference in the steady development of the Swedish Jairy industry. He attributes the sue cess of the Dauas and Swedes in this department of agriculture, in spite of difficalt conditions of climate and pasturage, to the admirable organisation of the industry in those countries. The technical education is excellent and those who have received it are employed in the large dairies, while those who have not had a technical education are only responsible for the quality and quantity of milk daily scut by them to the central dairy. It would be difficult to snd a Swedish farm where buttwr ia produced, as in England, by the farmer, with the help of the family aud laborers, attending himself to every department of the industry. " The butter," he says, " might be just as »ood, but it would take too much time and too much labor to make, so that the farmer could not afford to sell it at a Hufficiently low price." In other words the Consul attri butes the success of Sweden and Denmark as butter making countries to tho scientific use of the factory system. We in the colony have nothing to boast of in that direction, aud there is rqom for much improvement. Our total export of bntter last year was 3,600 tons, and although that was an increase of over 600 tons as compared with the previous year, and therefore a result to bo proud of, the room for further improvement is practically unlimited. According to the Government experts it takes 10£ pounds of milk to produce one pound of good butter by the separator system, aud an averaee cow will produce annually about 2001 bof butter. But as that leaves rive huudred gallons of skim milk per cow for pig or calf feeding, the figures seem to indicate that the average cow in the hands of an average farmer ought to be \vurth ten pouuds per annum. At that rate dairy kg should pay. — Napier Telegraph.